EuroLeague players with most Final Four appearances: Sloukas, Llull nearing the top / News - Basketnews.com

Kostas Sloukas and Sergio Llull lead the EuroLeague active players' list with the most Final Four appearances and games played.

Credit: IPA/SIPA; Regina Hoffmann/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Credit IPA/SIPA; Regina Hoffmann/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

When Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens point guard Kostas Sloukas and Real Madrid icon Sergio Llull enter their respective games at the Uber Arena in Berlin, each will appear in his 10th EuroLeague Final Four.

That will tie them for second-most all-time, behind only Victor Khryapa, who is the all-time leader, having played at 12 Final Fours.

Sloukas and Llull have won the trophy three times apiece, albeit the Greek player has done so with two teams (Olympiacos Piraeus and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul) while his Spanish counterpart only with Los Blancos.

And as chance would have it, Sloukas might go up against both of his ex-teams in this Final Four.

Credit Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

The only Final Four in which the veteran guard was registered but didn't play a single game was in 2010 in Paris. Sloukas, 20 at the time, was left out of Olympiacos' squad that traveled to the French capital and made it to the championship game.

The same happened with his then-teammate and current Olympiacos captain, Kostas Papanikolaou, who missed out on the chance to make his Final Four debut in 2010 but did so in spectacular fashion two years later.

In addition, the more time Llull and Sloukas spend on the floor, the better chances they will have to move up the all-time Final Four charts.

Llull currently sits first at 198 points (11.0 per game) in overall points scored, while Sloukas ranks 8th with 163 (9.1 per game) points at the Final Four. Real Madrid's former EuroLeague MVP has an outside shot to even catch Nikos Galis, who sits in first place in scoring in the Final Four era with 231 points.

Credit Javier Soriano/AFP - Scanpix

Llull is accompanied in the Top 4 by two of his Madrid teammates, Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez, for whom it will be his last Final Four appearance.

Fenerbahce's sharpshooter Melih Mahmutoglu. the last player on that list, missed the 2016 and the 2017 semi-finals, when Fenerbahce beat Baskonia and Real Madrid, respectively. He also sat out the 2018 Final Four in Belgrade.

The Top 10 of active EuroLeague players with the most Final Four appearances (the numbers of total tournaments played include this year's event) is dominated by this year's participants.

Player Team(s) Final Fours registered Final Fours played Total games played Kostas Sloukas Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos 11 10 18 Sergio Llull Real Madrid 10 10 18 Sergio Rodriguez Real Madrid 9 9 16 Rudy Fernandez Real Madrid 9 9 16 Milos Teodosic Olympiacos, CSKA 8 8 15 Kostas Papanikolaou Olympiacos, Barcelona 8 7 12 Jan Vesely Partizan, Fenerbahce, Barcelona 7 7 14

Cory Higgins

CSKA, Barcelona 6 6 12 Nikola Mirotic Real Madrid, Barcelona 6 6 12 Fabien Causeur Baskonia, Real Madrid 6 6 12 Melih Mahmutoglu Fenerbahce 6 5 10

Real Madrid's Edy Tavares, Fenerbahce's Sertac Sanli, and Nick Calathes are set to appear in their 5th Final Four this year.

As mentioned above, Victor Khryapa is still leading the all-time chart with 12 Final Four appearances and a total of 23 games, a number Sloukas and Llull will need two more tournaments to reach or surpass.

Credit AP-Scanpix

The two active players have already overtaken Theo Papaloukas and Kyle Hines, who each have 9 Final Fours (Hines might have the chance to improve his tally down the road).

Below stands the all-time Top 15 of EuroLeague players with the most Final Four appearances (the numbers of total tournaments played include this year's event):

Player Team(s) Final Fours registered Final Fours played Total games played Victor Khryapa CSKA 12 12 23 Kostas Sloukas Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos 11 10 18 Sergio Llull Real Madrid 10 10 18 Kyle Hines Olympiacos, CSKA, Olimpia Milan 9 9 18 Theodoros Papaloukas Olympiacos, CSKA 9 9 18 Sergio Rodriguez Real Madrid 9 9 16 Rudy Fernandez Real Madrid 9 9 16 JR Holden CSKA 8 8 16 Milos Teodosic Olympiacos, CSKA 8 8 15 Andrey Vorontsevich CSKA 8 8 15 Kostas Papanikolaou Olympiacos, Barcelona 8 7 12 Jan Vesely Partizan, Fenerbahce, Barcelona 7 7 14

Matjaz Smodis

Virtus Bologna, Fortitudo Bologna, CSKA 7 7 14

Nikita Kurbanov

CSKA 7 7 13

Juan Carlos Navarro

Barcelona 7 7 13 Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.